Botanist: self-proclaimed by its sole mind, Roberto "Otrebor" Martinelli, otherwise known as "The Botanist," as "eco-terrorist black metal." His first effort, I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose From The Dead appeared back in 2011 like a gargantuan banyan tree falling over onto the roof of a multimillion-dollar mansion. All of a sudden there appeared in the black metal scene a bizarre, hyper-environmentalist mixture of vocals, drums, and hammered dulcimer… notably quite a lot of that last one, actually. Otrebor would go on to refine the spontaneous and dulcimer-laden sound of his debut with last year's III: Doom In Bloom, which as the title suggests, had a lot more of a doom-ish vibe to it, with a more cohesive sense of composition as well. And now, in 2013, Otrebor is back, ready to assault your senses once more with his bizarre form of one man black metal and joyous songs of mutant plant creatures crawling into your eardrums.

Pretty horrendous. Somehow I got the premonition beforehand that a MechanisT-Botanist symbiotic relationship's never to be, but it turned out worse than expected. Almost made me go completely carnivorous on my diet, but ah whatevs.